If you read my comment the words 'treat it as a joke' are the most telling. Many men have sex with underage girls and I would not advocate castrating all of them. However, when someone thinks themselves above the law and doesn't give two ****s about who they hurt, then the young girls must be protected. Jimmy Saville to name one thought himself above the law and for whatever reason he was protected by those around him, just as SAFC protected Johnson. I'm not saying that what Johnson did is of the same magnitude as Saville, but he was going down the same road. Fortunately the Judge has placed a road block across that road and in the process has probably saved scores of young girls the same fate.
By that logic, anyone convicted of ABH, should be given life on the basis that they were "going down the road" of becoming the next Fred West.
Quite so, very well put. I also note the different ages of consent around the world and that this would not even be an offence in some countries. Nevertheless it is an offence here and the law says (regardless of the "maturity" of the victim) that a 15 year old is not capable of consenting to this sort of behaviour. In other words, the maturity is not taken into account, which makes sense since there is a vast range of maturity at that age. A custodial sentence is therefore appropriate, but the argument does again turn to other sentences for quite horrific crimes that bring apparently lesser punishment. There is certainly a sort of witch hunt for sexual offences now, which is kind of ironic considering what many light entertainment stars of the 70s got away with, and what certain people got away with in Rotherham until quite recently! It's almost like making up for not getting it right before - which is of course wrong as every case should be considered on its own merits. On a complete aside, there is quite a movement to give the vote to 16 year olds (as they had in the Scottish referendum I believe), so it's interesting that one day a person is protected as a child and the next day they get the vote!
they'll be allowed to smoke at age 8 soon,by law!allowed in a pub at age 10 next for a quick half........
Anyway, it's an interesting discussion, and everyone has made noteworthy points. Maybe we should get back to the footie now ?!
Mousa has done his ankle, Toby is ill and Erik has hurt himself... Apparently. Overblown probably, although Toby has been withdrawn from the Belgium squad.
"I knew that if I played very well I could end up at Barca. If I played just well, I'd end up at Arsenal." - Arda Turan. Ouch.
AS and Calcio Mercato both report that we're looking to sign Los Ladrones' other Croatian, Mateo Kovacic. Does anyone have the phone numbers of Vedran Corluka or Niko Kranjcar so we can employ them for a Marca-style shame blitz that lasts all summer?
I haven't seen enough of Kovacic to judge him, but I thought he'd flopped so far? Not sure what his best position is either, to be honest.
His move to Los Ladrones was an odd one: the only reason Inter sold him was to comply with FFP, having spent big on Kondogbia and Perisic, and it certainly looks like Los Ladrones mainly signed him so other teams couldn't (not least Barca) As for his best position, he does come across as similar to Alli: he can play in the pivot (which is where he was deployed when we faced Inter in the Europa League in AVB's first season...yeah, I didn't want to be reminded of that second leg either) or he can play in the attacking trio - while Los Ladrones are repeating Modric's first season with him, dumping him wherever they need a body on the pitch rather than playing him where he should be played.
Remi Garde has left Villa "by mutual consent". Honest. I wonder who their next victim, er... I mean manager will be?
He has to be one of the most uninspiring managerial appointments ever. At times he looked totally lost.
It makes sense if they already have his replacement lined up. Gives him a chance to assess the players that they've got and have a look at any decent youth players. They're already down, of course, but the extra preparation time can't hurt.
I saw absolutely no improvement under him. Sherwood didn't do well, but I think Garde might have even made them worse.
Surely he wouldn't have taken the job without a promise that he'd be given some pocket money to spend in January? And when Lerner decided to be a tight git instead, it was downhill from there. It beggars belief that they brought no-one in, not even on loan! In all honesty, the final nail in the coffin was trusting Sherwood with the Benteke and Delph windfall. For all his criticism of Baldini's role in Balegate, he squandered tens of millions on utter dross.
Villa have been the subject of one bad decision after another throughout Lerner's ownership. Vast amounts of money were spent on transfer fees and wages by O'Neill. The players were not top drawer and had minimal sell on value. O'Neill jumped ship when the money dried up. Subsequent managers had to reduce the wage bill (it went down a further £10m in the last 3 seasons) and their net spend is next lowest to us over the last 5 years of clubs who were ever present in the PL during that period. Sherwood picked a really poor proposition as they were going down sometime soon. If Garde had any sense he'd have quit once it was apparent he'd have to get the current playing staff to save the club. Presumably, he held out to be paid off, which is likely to have been 3-5 years money in club football in France outside PSG. The money saved in wages and transfer fees over the last 5 years is likely to be significantly less than what Lerner would have received in 1 further season in the PL. American owners, even when experienced in sports management, are not any guarantee of success on the pitch. Lerner owns the Cleveland Browns, Hicks & Gillette and then The Fenway Group with the Mousers, Shahid Khan at Fulham, the Glazer Family without Ferguson at Utd and even Kroenke's Arsenal don't seem to want to win anything and don't get relegation at all! Since Palace brought in American money, they haven't won a game. Please Joe don't sell us to the Yanks!!
